Page 202 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

When I had joined the family, I had done so because I loved Constantino. But I hadn’t known what the fuck I was getting myself into. I hadn’t known that I would have to kill the people that I’d once thought I couldn’t live without.

And I didn’t want Sage to go through anything like that either. I wanted her to be happy.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I—”

“No,” she said, and I expected her to continue to scold me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left like I did without warning. I shouldn’t have turned down your offers this week to eat dinner with you or to go shopping. I’ve been having an extremely stressful few weeks, and I needed to talk to someone about it.”

“You can talk to us anytime,” Constantino said, crouching in front of us.

“But you two have been so happy about your baby,” she whispered. “I didn’t want to ruin that.”

I tucked some hair behind her ear. “You wouldn’t have ruined that. You’re important to us.”

She lifted her gaze to meet mine, the tears in her eyes wavering. “I-I am?”

My heart shattered into a million pieces at the mere sound of her fragile voice. I wrapped my arms around her body and pulled her closer to me, tears welling in my own eyes. “Of course you are, Sage. And I’m so sorry that we made you feel like you weren’t.”

Sage, who had been holding it all inside her and refusing to shed a tear in front of us, suddenly burst out into tears. She sobbed into the crook of my neck and pulled me tighter.

“You’re ours to love, Sage,” Constantino said, sitting on the couch next to her and placing his lips on her shoulder. “You’re not just some plaything to us anymore. We would do anything for you. We promise.”

80

constantino

“Room 431,” I said to one of my men, handing him the keys to Sage’s hotel room. “Clean up the mess. Dispose of the body. Don’t make a mistake, or I’ll have your fucking head by the time you get back to the city. Understand?”

“Yes, boss.”

After watching him drive off from the airport and head back in the direction of the hotel, I boarded the private jet, where Sage slept on Laila’s shoulder, her cheeks stained with tears. Laila gently stroked her hair.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, but really … I was still dealing with the fact that Sage hadn’t even told me that she had left. No note addressed to me, no call, no text. But I was so fucking torn because she had taken care of Poppy so cleanly, unlike Laila had with Bethany.

Sage was part of this family now and had to deal with the consequences.

Consequences that I should not have allowed her to be part of.

I walked past the girls and sat across from Riccardo near the back of the private jet, not speaking a word to him until Laila passed out, too, and we were in the air.

Riccardo offered a small smile—something he never did.

“What?” I asked.

“You know, she loves you both,” Riccardo said, nodding to a stirring Sage. “She needed a break from the family, but she has been asking about you and Laila since we stepped onto the flight to leave New York a couple of nights ago.”

“Really?”

He nodded in response.

After dropping my gaze to the ring on my left hand, I frowned. Why hadn’t she told me she needed a break? Was it because of the way I’d acted with Laila and Bethany? Did she not trust me anymore? Or maybe she just didn’t think it would break me as much as it would break Laila.

But it fucking had. It’d hurt so much to see her apartment completely cleared out.

---